


Sincerely, Anonymous

by lilacnightmares



Category: Naruto
Genre: First Love, Fluff, Love Letters, M/M, Miscommunication, Mystery, Pining, Rock Lee is a Dork, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:07:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25091347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilacnightmares/pseuds/lilacnightmares
Summary: Lee receives a mysterious letter with the kanji for love written in the corner alongside the name. It becomes a question to figure out who wrote him the love letter.Work from Tumblr.
Relationships: Gaara/Rock Lee
Comments: 5
Kudos: 116





	Sincerely, Anonymous

I like you, the note said. 

Written on that letter had been a carefully scrawled message that may have been blunt and to the point, but it confused and perplexed him. It only said that they liked him, that they admired his smile and his attitude, and that was it. He had plenty of friends that often commended him for his hard work but this felt different. 

It felt different because of the way the letter had been wrapped together and slipped underneath his door for him to find on the welcome mat as he walked back inside after an afternoon of hanging out with his friends. 

There it was staring up at him in a little envelope with a heart on it. His heart thudded against his ribs as he tried to discern if it was meant for him or not. Sure, he could make out the tell-tale sign of his name scrawled neatly onto the paper by a delicate hand that had surely put a lot of time in ensuring that it was tidy. 

Who would someone send him a letter like this? 

It just didn’t seem to make sense. 

Who didn’t like him? 

Rock Lee hadn’t ever really gotten a letter before in his life. Sure, he had gotten scrolls from Gai on technique and form, as well as the mission review forms that he had to fill out when he and/or the members on his squad returned to the village after a lengthy mission. 

Those weren’t really letters, though. 

That would be considered work as that was what that was. This was more of a personal note of sorts and he couldn’t help but to scratch his head and pace back and forth as he spoke to himself in his room, mulling over who it could be from. 

The note itself was simple, but it was a deep shade of red. 

“Who could it be from?” Lee wondered aloud. “I can’t recall any of my friends using a stationary set like this. It couldn’t possibly be from Tenten or Neji. I don’t think that Naruto would use something like this either, so why would someone be sending me a letter of all things?” 

Honestly, he didn’t have a clue who it was from. 

The letter just looked back up at him with a mocking tone that he could almost hear, so he decided to go and have a chat with his trustful sensei on the matter to see what he thought before he opened the note again and reread the message that had been sent. 

He found Gai where he was almost, upside down, lifting his body with one hand as he counted backward from five-hundred. Lee rushed up to him, the letter in one hand as he waved with the other, calling out to him, “Gai-sensei! Hey, Gai-sensei!” 

Gai noticed him immediately, grinning broadly in his direction as he waved with his free hand back, “Lee! My most youthful student! You have today off from training, my boy. Oh, did you drop by for some more of my intense training? There’s always room more one more young and strapping companion! Neji and Tenten opted out, but perhaps you want to take a stab at it?” 

Lee shook his head, for once, he wasn’t thinking about dropping next to his teacher and getting into an intense workout. He needed to figure out what this letter was and what it meant in the first place. “I wanted to ask you a question. What does it mean when you receive a letter like this?” 

He flashed the envelope where Gai could see it. 

His teacher only gave it a look over for one long second, after which, he devolved into a right delightful fit of laughter. Gai pushed himself from the ground and back into an upright position after doing a very quick jump to face up again. “Lee, my boy! The day has finally come where you are a man.” 

“Huuuuh?” 

Gai slapped a hand against his back and pointed onward, into the horizon line as a crashing wave splashed behind them into the air. “This, my youthful student, happens to be a love letter from a secret admirer! Someone has a crush on you, Lee. When someone writes you a passionate note like this it means that they admire you! Someone out there thinks you’re hot stuff!” 

Lee could only gasp and stare back down at the letter in his hands. “A— A love letter? For me? I can’t believe it, Gai-sensei! I can’t believe it! This hasn’t ever happened before. But, why didn’t they just come to speak to me in person if that’s the case? I have no idea how to tell them how I feel in return without knowing who they are!” 

Someone had a crush on him?

It wasn’t just that they liked him, this was about a crush of all things. He couldn’t believe it but at the same time, he knew that Gai would never lie to him. This was very much the real deal by all accounts. 

Rock Lee had had fleeting crushes in the past where he fell fast and hard for people around him, but he had never had the feelings returned. This note could have been from anyone in the village and all he could focus on was the fact that someone liked him so much that there were nervous that he wouldn’t like them back! 

Lee liked everyone. 

He couldn’t imagine rejecting someone who cared about him this much. If they knew him as well as they described him in the letter, then they had to be someone that he cared about just as much! It just had to be that way. It was the only thing that made sense to him. Nothing else would, and that was that. 

If someone liked him like that—

He just had to figure out who they were so they weren’t hiding anymore! He wanted to talk to them, to open up about his feelings. 

“I need to find out who wrote this letter!” he said, as his eyes began to burn brightly with a new heated vigor within them. “I’ll see you later, Gai-sensei, I need to go around the village and see if I can find this someone!” 

Lee had sped away before Gai could even voice a goodbye. The man only laughed at the passion of his student. Whoever had stolen his heart was going to be a lucky person indeed. He could only hope that their unbridled passion was just as strong as Lee’s was, otherwise when he went to find them by—

Pushing a letter in their face and asking if they wrote it, it might not end the way he wanted. 

Lee’s journey to find the person that wrote the letter began in the middle of the village as he sought out every person that he could think of. He stopped by Ichiraku and leaned in to see that Naruto was there as always, enjoying his typical bowl of Ramen at about the right hour for him. 

“Naruto! Did you send me this letter?” Lee thrust the note into his line of sight and Naruto only stared at him with a mouthful of noodles. 

What he said in reply was muffled until he managed to swallow down what he had in his gullet, “Ah! What’s the big idea bursting in here like that, Lee? You coulda’ made me choke on that!” he complained, pressing his hands against the table. He blinked, looking at the letter that Lee was flashing him. 

“I don’t recognize that,” Naruto said. “What’s got you so worked up about it?” 

Lee shook his head, already pushing back out onto the streets to check the next spot that he could think of, “Sorry, I need to keep going if it wasn’t you. I’ll let you know later if it works out!” 

Lee’s search took him across the village, asking everyone that he had a suspicion about if they had written the letter for him. He came up empty every single time that he did. Nobody knew who had written it, either. It was like coming up with a dead-end every time. Still, people were supportive if confused by his actions. 

Well, everyone apart from Neji and Kiba, they had shut him down before he even asked them the question. 

It wasn’t Ino, nor was it Tenten, it wasn’t Hinata, it wasn’t Shikamaru, it wasn’t Chouji, it wasn’t Shino, it wasn’t Naruto, and it wasn’t anyone else that he could think of! So, that made this game to find the writer all that much harder! 

Still, Lee wouldn’t give up hope on his quest. 

His next path headed towards the route that would take him by the hospital and he caught a glimpse of a person in red that looked very familiar. It was then that it occurred to him that this shade of red on the letter reminded him greatly of the color that Haruno Sakura wore. His eyes nearly bulged out of his head. 

Sakura could have written this letter! 

His mouth dropped and he nearly ran into a tree, “Sakura! Sakura could have professed her love to me?!” 

The steam rose to his cheeks at an unbelievable pace and he had to stop briefly to catch his breath for a long second.

What if it had been Sakura? 

He wouldn’t know what to do with himself if that was the case! 

His favorite color in the world happened to be that shade of red. It just made his heart flutter for some reason. It wasn’t like it was because of Sakura or anything. That color had just stood out to him since… 

Well, he thought it had been during the Chunin Exams that he realized that that particular color felt perfect on his eyes. 

“Sa-Ku-Ra!” he mustered the energy to call over to her to get her attention on him and not on the road, and she glanced over her shoulder to cock her head. She waved back at him in response. It made his heart do a flip. 

She seemed surprised to see him. “Oh! Hey, Lee. It’s good to see you today. I thought you and the rest of your team had the day off, don’t you usually spend your day-off with Gai outside of the village training?” 

He leaned over, trying to catch his breath as she greeted him. Surely, he must have found the person that had written him the letter now. Lee lifted the note quietly and she blinked, “Um? What is this?” 

“It’s… a love letter,” Lee explained. “Did you send me this?” 

Sakura shook her head, “I’m sorry, Lee. I didn’t write that.” 

Lee’s heart sank but he understood. It wasn’t Sakura, either, but that was okay. He let out a sigh and frowned. How was he going to find them if he had run through everyone that he could even think of that was in the village? Sakura pressed her hand to his shoulder and he looked up at her with a perplexed expression. 

“Hey, don’t give up,” she said, quietly. “I’ve never seen you with such a low face before. I bet that person is waiting for you to find them in the last place you’d expect.”

“The last place I’d expect?” Lee echoed. 

Suddenly, it occurred to him in the letter that there had been a specific mention of his work during his first Chunin Exam. It struck him that he should check the arena, nobody would be there this time of year and that meant it made a perfect spot for a secret rendezvous of the uh, romantic kind! 

Lee sped in the direction of the stadium and found himself hopping from row the rooftops until he reached his destination. He could see someone perched on the roof but from the ground, they looked like a blur to him. 

That wouldn’t do! 

He leaped up and landed on the ground with one false swoop, and glanced around to see if he could locate the admirer, or at the very least, someone that might be able to point him in the right direction. Lee could have sworn that he saw someone in this direction but it was like they just went and disappeared. 

“Darnit! I thought I figured it out! This won’t do. I’ll just have to keep looking then! Secret admirer, I will find you!” Lee looked out over the village, wondering how amongst the sea of people if he would be able to find them. Well, at least until he heard the sound of a grunt behind himself. 

Lee flipped around to find himself staring into the eyes of one Sabaku no Gaara. His red hair astray as usual and his eyes quietly speculating the world around him. Seafoam was the color that he would call them. He often wondered what was behind the eyes of this man. They had come to learn more about each other in recent years. 

It had been such a long time since they had last spoken. 

It had been when Akatsuki attacked Sunagakure, he believed. 

“Gaara!” Lee cried, unashamedly throwing his arms around the man as if he hadn’t seen him in years. “I didn’t expect to find you here. What are you doing in Konohagakure?” 

Gaara stiffened in his grasp but that was no surprise. “Business,” he said, “There were a few things to take care of with the Hokage in regards to future joint ventures between the two villages.” 

Lee had to commend Gaara. He had come a long way since they had fought back then, and even now, he admired how his friend learned to become that gentle soul that he always was. It was no surprise that he was here to work on peace! 

“Well, it’s great to see you,” Lee smiled. 

They both sat down and watched as the sun faded on the horizon. Catching up on this and that, mostly Lee talking about things but Gaara throwing things in now and again. It was easy to talk to him. Gaara didn’t make him worry about the little things, or make him get overwhelmed to kingdom come. 

He always felt like he could slow down and breathe when he was with Gaara. 

It was after that long moment that he paused, looking over at Gaara to admire his features that he realized that the heart on the letter matched the one on his forehead perfectly. Lee stared at him for a moment longer and Gaara’s eyes trailed down to the letter that lay in Lee’s lap, untouched by his hands. 

“Oh, this? Yes. It is quite a peculiar mystery. I received this letter earlier today and I have yet to find the person that wrote it,” Lee explained. “Gai-sensei explained to me that it is a love letter so I wish to find the person who wrote it so I can talk to them about their feelings. They put so much thought into me.”

Gaara didn’t say anything. He looked away momentarily. 

Lee paused, taking in Gaara’s features. His outfit was a deep red, and his hair was a deep red, and this letterhead matched both of those colors. He had never seen Gaara’s handwriting before but he knew that for some reason, his heart was telling him that this was the person that had written the letter. 

“Gaara,” he started, “Did you write this letter?” 

“...What were you planning on doing if I did?” was the response. 

“Well,” Lee swallowed. His tongue suddenly felt tied up. “I would tell the person that wrote this letter that if they feel this strongly about me… then surely I feel the same way about them. I just can’t imagine not liking someone that put so much thought into talking about me like this. I sort of hoped that I could… return their feelings.”

It was quiet for a very long moment. But, instead of responding, Gaara’s hand slid closer to rest next to Lee’s. Lee took that as a sign to rest his hand atop of his. Neither of them said anything but nothing else needed to be said. 

  
  



End file.
